Cork golf: Sixth Irish title for Douglas dynamo Peter O'Keeffe
Peter O'Keeffe (Douglas) and Aideen Walsh (Lahinch) were crowned Irish Mid-Amateur champions again at Tipperary. Picture: Fran Caffrey/Golffile.
Peter O’Keeffe bagged his sixth Irish Championship win last weekend when he won the Irish Mid-Am in Tipperary.
The two-time Irish Open Champion already had two Mid-Am titles to his name but he has had a poor 2024 by his own standards. O’Keeffe has played well in parts this year but struggled to put a few consecutive rounds together.
He did that over the weekend and started brightly with a two-under-par 70 although he did find himself in third place. A level par second round put O’Keeffe into a tie for the lead after the two ahead of him dropped backwards.
After two rounds O’Keeffe was in a three-way tie for the lead. Local man Pat Murray was very much in the hunt, the 53-year-old has had a very impressive season so far and was back playing on the course where he first learned the game. Muskerry’s Brian Lane was also in contention after two opening rounds of 71.
Murray had a poor start and found himself a few shots off the pace after the front nine. Playing alongside him, Lane and O’Keeffe were tied after both had three birdies and a bogey on the first nine.
O’Keeffe went ahead after a birdie on the 12th, and when Lane dropped shots on the 13th and 14th it looked like the two-time champion had one hand on the trophy. O’Keeffe did drop a shot on the 16th but a birdie on the final hole put the win beyond doubt.
“I’m very happy with that, I’ve had no form whatsoever for the bones of 12 months. This was a big week for personally just to get something back out of golf,” said O’Keeffe.
“I worked on a lot of great stuff with my coach, Noel Fox, just bouncing stuff off him. He was on holidays and I was sending him videos all the time. It didn’t feel great out there but I knew I was functioning well which is the main thing.”
Lane finished in second place, two behind the leader, and Fermoy’s Eoghan McCarthy was fourth thanks to an impressive final-round 71. Dean O’Riordan was tied for 6th and Pat Fitzpatrick and John Waldron finished in the top 20.
O’Keeffe will be hoping to keep his good form going for another week. As a Pinergy brand ambassador he will be teeing it up in the Woodbrook Scratch Cup which is sponsored by Pinergy.
There are a number of events on this weekend. Mitchelstown hold their scratch cup weekend on Saturday and Sunday with Senior, Junior, Intermediate and Minor competitions open and entry is €30.
Doneraile will hold their annual senior scratch cup on Sunday, the event is sponsored by Brewin Dolphin and entry €20 with a shotgun start at 9.30am. Macroom also have their senior scratch cup taking place on Sunday with some limited times available.
Further afield, the Castletroy Scratch Cup takes place on Saturday. The 36 event is one of the oldest scratch cups in Ireland and it has been a happy hunting ground for Cork golfers over the years.
The event has expanded over the past six years and now boasts a field from all over Ireland.
The following weekend Mallow will host the 54-hole senior scratch cup with the winner set to take home the Dan Butler Cup. The event is again sponsored by PJ Hegarty who has supported the event for several years.
Sara Byrne had another very impressive week, she was in California for LPGA pre-qualifying. The Douglas golfer faced four rounds of golf in searing heat as over 300 professionals and amateurs aimed for a top 95 spot to advance.
Byrne opened with an impressive 69 that placed her just outside the top 10. She followed that with 70s in the next two rounds which was enough to place her in 15th place. With 95 golfers to go through the to final qualifying stage, anything but a disaster would see Byrne advance.
In the final round, she shot a 74 which saw her drop a few places, but the work was done and she booked her place in final qualifying. Byrne returned to London on Monday to meet up with her Curtis Cup teammates for the event which starts tomorrow.
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